LABEL ANALYSIS OF SERBIAN HONEY: WHAT DOES (NOT) THE LABEL TELL US?

Abstract

In order to diff erentiate between many honey types on Serbian market, consumers read labels, which represent an important aspect of packaging “catching” the consumer’s eyes as well as carrying all the necessary informa-tion about the product, producer and seller. As consumers are more and more aware of health problems and nutrition they pay attention to the in-formation written on the labels on diff erent products. Th e aim of this study was to inspect labels on honey packages collected in an offi cial monitoring during October 2017. In total 60 honey samples were collected and exam-ined. Of all examined honey samples, 46 (76.67%) labels did not fulfi ll pre-scribed conditions according to Legislative on quality of honey and other bee products and Declaration, labeling and marketing of food (“Offi cial Gazette RS”, No. 101/2015; “Official Gazette RS” No. 85/13 and No. 101/13), while only 14 (23.33%) did. Th is results lead to indispensible need to in-form and educate beekeepers about the actual laws and regulations in order to make labels that contain all the information required, which might pos-sibly also raise the consumption of honey to higher level.